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Day 9: Peanut Butter Cookies

First a recap from Day 8. We started the biscotti too late in the day and finished well into the evening. Biscotti are not difficult to make but they are time consuming and you have to pay attention to them. As I mentioned, we couldn’t decide on two so we went for the biscotti trifecta. All recipes come from cookinglight.com. First up: Chai Spice. I like the zip of chai and that chai “zip” was baked into the cookie with cinnamon, allspice and ginger. Snickerdoodle biscotti followed and because the outside of the biscotti is brushed with egg white and a cinnamon/sugar mixture, it did leave a snickerdoodle taste. Finally, espresso chip. This cookie had the most intense flavor of the three, not an overwhelming coffee taste but a deeper and richer taste than the other two. All three recipes are made similiarly. Make the dough, roll out into a rectangle. Bake, then cool for 10 minutes, slice, bake for 10 minutes, turn cookies over and bake another 10 minutes. Like biscotti, these are dry but really good with a cup of tea (as we enjoyed them this afternoon). The espresso chip would love to be dunked in coffee. As you can see we wrapped these up in cellophane bags, added a few tea bags and shared them with friends. These are a great gift to give, especially since they are not too sweet given this sweet-laden time of year.

2. Lightly spoon the flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (flour through salt) in a large bowl. Combine espresso and water; stir well with a whisk. Stir in oil, vanilla, and eggs, and add to flour mixture, stirring until well-blended (dough will be dry and crumbly). Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead lightly 7 to 8 times. Divide the dough in half. Shape each portion into an 8-inch-long roll. Place the rolls 6 inches apart on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray, and flatten each roll to 1-inch thickness.

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Remove rolls from baking sheet, and cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Cut each roll diagonally into 15 (1/2-inch) slices. Place the slices, cut sides down, on the baking sheet. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees, and bake for 10 minutes. Turn the cookies over, and bake an additional 10 minutes (the cookies will be slightly
soft in center but will harden as they cool). Remove from baking sheet, and cool completely on wire rack. Yield: 2-1/2 dozen (serving size: 1 biscotto).

On to today, Peanut Butter Cookies. We were looking for a recipe that didn’t require chilling the dough, fairly easy and quick. These hit the mark. While they definitely taste like peanut butter, you don’t feel like your tongue is stuck to the top of your mouth, like you might when you like the spoon from the jar. The recipe did warn not to flatten them too much which I tried not to do. However, they did not come out as puffy as I would like. This doesn’t affect the taste. If you’re looking for a recipe that includes ingredients you have in your kitchen without making a dash to the grocery store, not wanting to spend 2 hours in the kitchen and one that people of all ages will enjoy, make these. Note, we made 36 cookies from the batch.